Archives: Authors

Faris has played roles in policy, strategy, research, manpower planning, teaching, facilitating, coaching, and mentoring in the arts. He has held leadership roles with Singapore’s Public Service, the United Nations, a leading tech company, a global climate change and mental health advisory and in other capacities. He has published in Malay and English, through platforms like Taylor and Francis, Springer Nature, The Straits Times, and Berita Harian, alongside writings in poetry and film review. He won five international music awards and one local.

Founded by Janet DeNeefe in 2004, the Ubud Writers & Readers Festival is one of the world’s leading literary events, held annually in the cultural heart of Bali. Each October, it gathers thousands of literature enthusiasts, offering them the opportunity to engage with renowned writers, poets, and thinkers from around the world.

In addition to thought-provoking literary discussions, the festival presents a rich cultural program featuring traditional Indonesian dance and performances, literary lunches, guided tours of Ubud’s historic sites, late-night festival club, musical and spoken word galas, book launches, and interactive workshops designed to nurture emerging writers and young creatives.

As a celebration of storytelling, ideas, and artistic expression, the Ubud Writers & Readers Festival remains a vibrant meeting place for those seeking inspiration, connection, and dialogue through literature and culture.

Mehdi Bouhassoune is a market research professional with academic credentials from the University of Strasbourg, the University of Birmingham, the London School of Economics, and the University of York. His career has spanned different global market research companies, where he has supported a wide array of advertisers, businesses, governments, and researchers in decoding the decision-making and behaviors of consumers. As a researcher, practitioner, and consumer himself, Mehdi brings a unique yet approachable perspective to understanding the science behind everyday purchases.

Sarah Kushairi is a clinical pharmacist born and bred in Malaysia. She graduated with a Bachelor of Pharmacy (Honours) from International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) and MSc in Clinical Pharmacy, International Practice and Policy from University College London (UCL).

When Sarah was 12, she dreamed of becoming a published writer and started writing her first Harry Potter-inspired novel. Alas, she only wrote 2 chapters and gave up.

Nevertheless, she kept on writing, and her articles on health and beauty had been published by various newspapers in Malaysia. She also appeared on television and radio, delivering talks about these topics.
Her anecdote titled ‘Tudung Mana?’ had been published in an anthology titled Hijab: Everyday Stories of Muslim Women from Singapore and Beyond (Helang Books, 2023). To distract herself from the stress of her Master’s coursework, Sarah had also self-published her first travelogue titled Snippets of Travels: Musings and Travelogues across 5 countries (Amazon KDP, 2024).

Jannah is ^NOT Average is inspired by two true stories when she was a science stream student in 2006-2007 Malaysia. It is also her first (completed) novel.

Omar Musa is an author, poet, rapper, and visual artist, based between Brooklyn and Borneo. He has released three poetry books (including Killernova), four hip hop records, and written an acclaimed one man play, Since Ali Died. He was named one of the Sydney Morning Herald’s Young Novelists of the Year in 2015 for his novel Here Come the Dogs. He received a standing ovation at TEDx Sydney at the Sydney Opera House. Omar’s book of poetry and woodcut art Killernova (Penguin Random House Australia, 2021) explored themes such as borderlessness, South-East Asian colonial history, ancestral legacies, seafaring, islands, oceans, addiction, and race in Australia. It celebrated his unexpected journey into woodcut prints under the tutelage of punk rock/activist collective Pangrok Sulap in his homeland of Malaysian Borneo. Killernova won the Special Book Award at ACT Notable Book Awards, was longlisted for Australian Literature Society Gold Medal, and Highly Commended for the ACT Book of The Year.

In 2018, Omar wrote a one man play, Since Ali Died, for Griffin Theatre Company, about the death of his childhood hero Muhammad Ali. It was an exploration of his relationship with Islam, Australian racism, friendship, and addiction. Musa did a critically acclaimed national tour of Since Ali Died in venues such as Melbourne Arts Centre, Sydney Festival, Brisbane Festival, Canberra Theatre, OzAsia Festival in Adelaide and Darwin Festival.

Omar’s debut novel, Here Come the Dogs (Penguin Australia, The New Press USA, 2014/2015), explored themes such as Australian racism, powerlessness, and masculinity. Here Come the Dogs won the People’s Choice Award at the ACT Book of Year Awards, was long-listed for the Dublin International Literary Award and Miles Franklin Award, and was shortlisted for the NSW Premier’s Literary Award for New Writing and the South Australian Premier’s Literary Award for Fiction.

Omar has had several solo exhibitions of his woodcut prints, including All My Memories Are Mistranslations at Humble House Gallery in Canberra.

Omar has performed at venues such as the Brixton Academy in London, Sydney Opera House, Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York City and The National Museum in Brasilia, Brazil and appeared at international writers festivals such as Sydney Writers Festival (Australia), Read My World Festival (Netherlands), Lagos International Poetry Festival (Nigeria), Edinburgh International Book Festival (Scotland), Toronto International Festival of Authors (Canada), Makassar International Writers Festival (Indonesia), among others. He has performed alongside writers such as Ocean Vuong, Irvine Welsh, and Kae Tempest.

Darius Foroux is the author of 7 books, and founder of The Sounding Board. A past student of business, he writes about productivity, habits, decision making, and wealth building His ideas and work have been featured in TIME, NBC, Fast Company, Inc., Observer, and many more publications. 500K+ people read his blog every month, which he started in 2015 and uses as his main platform to connect with individuals across the globe who read his work or need guidance.

Edward Tse is a widely acclaimed leading business strategist and thought leader in China. Born and raised in Hong Kong and educated in the United States, he has more than 30 years of management consulting and senior corporate management experience.

Tse is the Founder and CEO of Gao Feng Advisory Company, a China-rooted strategic consultancy established in 2014. He began his consultancy career at McKinsey & Company in San Francisco in the late 1980s. In the early 1990s he moved to China to work as Managing Partner for China at Boston Consulting Group and then as Managing Partner and Chairman for Greater China for Booz & Company (previously Booz Allen Hamilton).

He has consulted to the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and the Chinese and Shanghai governments. He has served on the boards of several Chinese companies and a China-focused international investment trust. He is also an adjunct professor at the University of Hong and Chinese University of Hong Kong, and Professor of Managerial Practice at Beijing’s Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business.

Tse has written two previous books about China in English, China’s Disruptors (2015) and The China Strategy (2010). He has also written four books in Chinese: Direction (2007), Surpass (2012), The New Frontier of Competition (2020, co-authored with Yu Huang) and Strategic Thinking in the Era of Mega Changes (2022). His articles have appeared in publications including Harvard Business Review, Washington Post, Forbes, and South China Morning Post.

Brought up in Dagenham, London, England, Humphreys migrated to Singapore in 1996, left for Australia in 2006, and returned to Singapore in 2011. He worked as a humour columnist, first at TODAY and then The Straits Times and The New Paper. Humphreys continues to write for newspapers, magazines, and websites in Singapore, Malaysia, Japan, Australia, and the UK. His humour, football and lifestyle columns have appeared in FourFourTwo, Esquire, The New Paper, The Age, The Straits Times, and TODAY. He is now radio host for Money FM 89.3 hosts an award-winning football podcast.

By 2001, he was one of the country’s bestselling authors. His first book, Notes from an even Smaller Island, became an immediate bestseller and travelled across Southeast Asia, Australia, and Britain. The book appeared on the Singapore bestseller list for over four years. BBC World said it was ‘a warts and all view of the city-state and celebrates many of the things most often criticised’. In 2003, his second book, Scribbles from the Same Island, a compilation of his popular humour columns in WEEKEND TODAY, was launched in Singapore and Malaysia and also became an immediate bestseller. In 2006, Final Notes from a Great Island: A Farewell Tour of Singapore completed the trilogy. The book went straight to No.1 and decided to stay there for a few months. Humphreys has since written 32 books.

Humphreys is currently working on an Abbie Rose and the Magic Suitcase TV series and his Inspector Low crime novels are also being developed for TV.

Alex Fergnani is an atypical professor, writer, executive educator, youtuber, and proud enthusiast of Asia. He obtained his Ph.D. in Management and Organization at NUS Business School in Singapore, his Master’s in Futures Studies at Tamkang University in Taipei, and his Bachelor of Asian Languages, Markets and Cultures at the University of Bologna in Italy. Thanks to his prolific intellectual contributions, he was awarded numerous awards, including the President fellowship by the Singapore government, the Fetzer scholarship by the Academy of Management, and an honorary research fellowship by Strathclyde Business School.

Matthew Oey is an Associate Editor at Tuttle Publishing, part of Periplus Publishing Group. Previously, he was a Research Assistant at Columbia’s Graduate School of International and Public Affairs, where he worked with Professor Stuart Gottlieb and U.S. National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien. Matthew was the lead organizer of the ‘Reimagining Southeast Asian History’ conference at the Asian Civilisations Museum, held on August 23, 2023. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in History summa cum laude from Columbia University and is a Juris Doctor candidate at Harvard Law School.